Posing for Artist Angela Cunningham

When I first moved to Western North Carolina, I was studying full-time and didn't have time for a regular job. To earn extra spending cash, I regularly posed for local artists and drawing groups. I haven't had the time to do it much lately. Being employed makes it difficult to be on call, but lately, I have been sitting for artist and my former instructor, Angela Cunningham.

It's a slow process but an amazing one to see come together. Every step is essential to creating a successful end product, which is, in this case, a large-format graphite drawing and an oil painting. Angela's done a few color studies, one of which is shown below.

As a figure model, I always have little expectation or investment in the work completed based on my posing. I know it's not about me. It doesn't hurt my feelings if the likeness isn't there or if it's not particularly flattering, but sitting for Angela has been a unique pleasure because of her skill. It's one of the few times I've allowed myself some satisfaction and expectation for the final piece. I can't wait to see how it turns out, and I feel honored to be a part of her body of work.

Below is one of my favorite pieces of her work, Silence. I love this painting not just because it's beautiful or that I'm partial to skulls but also because the moth in the lower right-hand corner is a polyphemus moth I found fluttering while it died on a hot night the first summer I moved here. It reminds me of how exciting that time was and how beautiful, for both good and bad reasons, my experience here has been.